Planners bowed to public pressure this week, eliminating an industrial area off Route 106 from proposed medical marijuana overlay district.

Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Greg Strange said local officials received numerous letters complaining about the zoning article to earmark the Easton Industrial Park and the Eastman Street area as possible dispensary sites.

After ensuring the town was protected from any legal challenge under the stateís new medical marijuana law, Strange said he recommended including only the Easton industrial park in the new zone.

"We are residents in the same town and we all work together," he told Kristenís Way and Kevinís Way residents at Monday nightís meeting.

The change came as good news to the residents who, two weeks earlier, had condemned the zoning as a threat to their families and their homes values.

They said the development has more than 100 children living on its four streets.

"We all have children and we are a very tight neighborhood. In my opinion, I just donít think the controls will be there," Zafa Smith, of Kristenís Way, said.

Calling the proposal "a fiasco," Scot Kudcey, of Kevinís Way, said prospective homebuyers would shy away from a residential area that abutted any business selling marijuana.

"I donít want to buy a house near a medical marijuana dispensary, do you?" Kudcey asked.

But Strange said the town had to create a feasible zone where medical marijuana could be sold or risk opening up every agricultural, business and industrial area of town to dispensaries.

Voters approved the humanitarian use of marijuana and state law provides for five facilities in every county. Currently two have been licensed for Bristol County.

Strange said the proposed zoning was intended to reduce adverse impacts on schools, playgrounds and other areas where children congregate by creating a 500-foot buffer. Any dispensary would also require a special permit.

Planners were wary of the transitional nature of rental properties in the Easton Industrial Park and that a change of business could eliminate possible dispensary sites.

He said the vast majority of industrial land in Easton abuts residential neighborhoods.

The amended version, however, still "gives us control and alleviate concerns," he said.

Strange said the board had not been aware that there was any opposition to the zoning article heading to Town Meeting in May despite a dozen public meetings on the issue.

But Kudcey said the residents only found out about the proposal from an article in the Easton Journal.

Selectman Todd Gornstein said many people were concerned that the rezoning was pending because a dispensary was coming to Easton.